[Marxism] Jack O’Dell – An Appreciation | James Campbell and Mark Solomon | Portside

[Kevin Lindemann and Cathy Campo via Marxism]

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https://portside.org/2019-11-07/jack-odell-appreciation


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Re: [Marxism] Syrian Kurds OK US-led oil mission

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Look, Chris, may be the PYD/YPG has unknown super-powers which no other 
organization in the world possesses. So may be they can really magically 
"use" the US, Russia and Assad. But if you think rationally about the 
whole issue, what do you think is more likely:


1) That a small organization without any state power manipulates two of 
the strongest imperialist Great Powers plus a regime with a huge state 
apparatus which successfully killed hundreds of thousands of people in 
the last 8,5 years?


2) Or that these powers manipulate the, in comparison, small and 
impotent PYD/YPG?


I think one does not need to be an Einstein to know the answer!

However, I am aware that, unfortunately, opportunism sometimes clouds 
the mind!


Am 07.11.2019 um 22:16 schrieb Chris Slee:
The SDF are trying to use both Russia and the US to deter further 
Turkish aggression against northeastern Syria.  Neither is a reliable 
ally.


Russia wants to see the SDF weakened so they will accept the 
restoration of Assad's rule in northeastern Syria.  But Russia 
probably does not want Turkey permanently occupying a large area of 
Syrian territory.  So it may be willing to deter any further expansion 
of the Turkish-occupied zone.


The US ruling class is divided over Syria.  It seems most of them want 
to keep a presence there, for various reasons including rivalry with 
Russia and Iran, desire to ensure ISIS does not revive, desire to 
control the oil, etc.  Public sympathy for Rojava because of its 
commitment to women's rights and religious pluralism is also a factor 
which may have some influence on politicians.


The presence of US troops in the oil producing area of Deir Ezzor may 
deter Turkey from trying to invade that area, or bombing it to destroy 
the oil wells and deprive the SDF of resources.


Chris Slee

*From:* Marxism  on behalf of 
RKOB via Marxism 

*Sent:* Friday, 8 November 2019 12:18:16 AM
*To:* Chris Slee 
*Subject:* [Marxism] Syrian Kurds OK US-led oil mission
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Another confirmation of the ongoing service of the PYD/YPG for US
imperialism (while at the same time negotiating with Assad and Russian
imperialism).

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/11/syria-kurds-sdf-pentagon-oil-mission-kobane.html


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Re: [Marxism] Sorry Damon Lindelof, I Don’t Open Your ‘Watchmen’ Blackmail on HBO | Washington Babylon

[Angelus Novus via Marxism]

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> Watchmen did not and does not require a sequel because it said absolutely 
> everything that needed to be said about not just 
> superheroes, but the entire literary genre of comics
I agree with the sentiment that Watchmen does not need a sequel, but this 
sentence is nonsense.  Comics is not a "literary genre", comics is not a 
"genre", period.  Comics is a "form" or "medium", like cinema, prose, or 
painting, and Watchmen, while arguably the final statement on the _genre_ of 
superheroes, is not in any way all that needs to be said about the _form_ or 
_medium_ of comics.
Spend some time with Harvey Pekar, Julie Doucet, or Robert Crumb's 
autobiographical material, Chris Ware's historical dramas like Jimmy Corrigan 
or Rusty Brown, Charles Burns' sci-fi/body-horror "Black Hole"; Peter Bagge's 
situation comedy "Buddy Bradley" stories from "Hate", the magical realist 
melodramas of Gilbert and Jaime Hernandez, or the genre-defying works of Daniel 
Clowes to see the cream of what the comics form has to offer.
Comics is not superheroes, and Watchmen, while great, is not all the medium has 
to offer; it's not even the _best_ the medium has to offer.
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Re: [Marxism] Syrian Kurds OK US-led oil mission

[Chris Slee via Marxism]

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The SDF are trying to use both Russia and the US to deter further Turkish 
aggression against northeastern Syria.  Neither is a reliable ally.

Russia wants to see the SDF weakened so they will accept the restoration of 
Assad's rule in northeastern Syria.  But Russia probably does not want Turkey 
permanently occupying a large area of Syrian territory.  So it may be willing 
to deter any further expansion of the Turkish-occupied zone.

The US ruling class is divided over Syria.  It seems most of them want to keep 
a presence there, for various reasons including rivalry with Russia and Iran, 
desire to ensure ISIS does not revive, desire to control the oil, etc.  Public 
sympathy for Rojava because of its commitment to women's rights and religious 
pluralism is also a factor which may have some influence on politicians.

The presence of US troops in the oil producing area of Deir Ezzor may deter 
Turkey from trying to invade that area, or bombing it to destroy the oil wells 
and deprive the SDF of resources.

Chris Slee

From: Marxism  on behalf of RKOB via 
Marxism 
Sent: Friday, 8 November 2019 12:18:16 AM
To: Chris Slee 
Subject: [Marxism] Syrian Kurds OK US-led oil mission

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Another confirmation of the ongoing service of the PYD/YPG for US
imperialism (while at the same time negotiating with Assad and Russian
imperialism).

https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/11/syria-kurds-sdf-pentagon-oil-mission-kobane.html


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[Marxism] Sorry Damon Lindelof, I Don’t Open Your ‘Watchmen’ Blackmail on HBO | Washington Babylon

[Andrew Stewart via Marxism]

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https://washingtonbabylon.com/lindelof-blackmail-watchmen/


Best regards,
Andrew Stewart 
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Re: [Marxism] Martin Scorsese Avenges the Auteur | The New Yorker

[Jeffrey Masko via Marxism]

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More silliness to me, the age of auteur theory is long gone...the* voice*
of the film comes from the screenplay, the technicians involved in
production, the director, and importantly, the editor in post. As Bill
Nichol's would have it, the voice of the film comes from an interplay of
all of these including the audience and their understanding of film
language and film genre convention. This is precisely why films are
ideological (as in the common assumptions) that order our lives; films are
so much more than the product of a single author and to limit them as such
takes away not only the unseen and often underpaid workers behind the
"genius" but it robs film of their value as sociological artifacts.

Directors lie to us, (Kubrick was famous for this), to themselves,
misunderstand their own art, are unaware of themes present in them, they
change their minds (sometimes many years after the fact). and so on. One
notion is that great art comes not from the intellect proper, but from the
subconscious. Kurosawa once remarked when asked about the meaning of a
particular film, if he could articulate it in words, he would be a poet,
but he is a filmmaker and so...

To see the meaning of a film in auteur theory means (now, not in the
orginal French theory) to elevate the individual, very helpful to the U.S.
mentality of the individual at the expense of the community. It enshrines
the idea of "genius" artists who are special and different than the rabble.
When Rob Cohen talks about being in a Cubist period when he did xXx and
using muliple angles of motorcycle jumps that doubled action, rather than
using traditional continuity editing, we can see his intelligence and
education; he like Marty, are smart people, but that doesn't mean xXx is
worthy of watching or that Marty's argument is autuerist rather than
against the blockbuster formula of the 70s that reigns supreme.

On Thu, Nov 7, 2019 at 6:00 AM Louis Proyect via Marxism <
marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote:

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>
> What Scorsese is decrying is not the use of fantasy characters in
> movies. (A few days ago, he said that he even considered making “Joker,”
> though I wonder whether he was joking.) There’s a word in the first
> sentence of the piece that, clearly but subtly, propels the through line
> of his argument. He doesn’t complain about “superhero” movies; he says
> that, in Empire, he was speaking of “Marvel movies.” He repeats “Marvel”
> in the second paragraph, and then, in the third paragraph, specifies
> what he’s talking about: “franchise films.” Scorsese isn’t inveighing
> against fantasy but against a system of production that submerges
> directors’ authority in a network of dictates and decisions issued from
> the top down—a network in which the director is more of a functionary
> than a creator.
>
>
> https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/martin-scorsese-avenges-the-auteur
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[Marxism] The Death of the Rude Press | The New Republic

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://newrepublic.com/article/155627/death-rude-press-deadspin-splinter-blogs
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[Marxism] Two Penguin Chicks Survive in Colony of 40, 000 - Birds Are Starving All Over the World With Climate Change as Factor

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a28067879/two-penguin-chicks-40-000-colony-climate-change-birds/
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[Marxism] [SUSPICIOUS MESSAGE] Two Histories of Financiers Profiting From Real Estate While Homeowners Go Belly Up

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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NY Times, Nov. 7, 2019
Two Histories of Financiers Profiting From Real Estate While Homeowners 
Go Belly Up

By Jennifer Szalai

Homewreckers
How a Gang of Wall Street Kingpins, Hedge Fund Magnates, Crooked Banks, 
and Vulture Capitalists Suckered Millions Out of Their Homes and 
Demolished the American Dream

By Aaron Glantz
Illustrated. 398 pages. Custom House. $27.99.

Race for Profit
How Banks and the Real Estate Industry Undermined Black Homeownership
By Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
349 pages. The University of North Carolina Press. $30.

Aaron Glantz knows that he’s living the dream — the good guy who does 
well in the morality play of American real estate.


A journalist and a third-generation San Franciscan, Glantz has been able 
to live affordably in the outrageously expensive city of his birth by 
dint of a savvy investment in a foreclosed home 10 years ago, after the 
housing market went bust. You don’t even have to feel too sorry for the 
tenants he evicted from the house, which included the previous owner who 
was foreclosed on; they turned out to be grifters, having spent years 
flipping that house and others between themselves, defaulting on the 
mortgages and then selling to one another to reap the windfall of 
inflated prices. Glantz and his wife, then pregnant with their first 
child, received an $8,000 check as part of the Obama administration’s 
stimulus package; they used the money to remodel their new home, 
effectively putting people to work while building their nest egg.


It’s a simple tale with a happy ending, but in “Homewreckers,” his new 
book about the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, Glantz skillfully 
tells a bigger story about American housing that’s tortuous, confounding 
and ultimately enraging.


Along with “Race for Profit: How Banks and the Real Estate Industry 
Undermined Black Homeownership,” by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, 
“Homewreckers” shows what happens when private speculators get buoyed by 
government largess while non-tycoons are largely left to fend for 
themselves.


Taylor and Glantz focus on different eras, decades apart, but in a way 
that’s the point: When it comes to doling out public money to private 
business with the hope that it will inevitably trickle down, the 
American government is like the Bill Murray character in the first half 
of “Groundhog Day”: making the same mistakes over and over again, 
without ever seeming to learn.


“Race for Profit,” which was longlisted for this year’s National Book 
Award, covers the few years in the late ’60s and early ’70s, when the 
Fair Housing Act of 1968 nominally ended the government’s longstanding 
practice of redlining. Ever since its inception during the Great 
Depression, the Federal Housing Administration had insured mortgage 
loans made by private lenders for purchases in white neighborhoods; 
purchases in or even near black neighborhoods were generally ineligible. 
The benefits of homeownership swelled the ranks of the postwar middle 
class, transforming the economy while entrenching residential segregation.


President Lyndon Johnson promised to change these exclusionary practices 
and extend opportunities for homeownership. Taylor says that the 
pressure was coming from all directions. Cities like Detroit and Los 
Angeles erupted in violent unrest, sparked in part by the explosive mix 
of high prices and inferior housing imposed on black people, who, 
confined by racism, redlining and restrictive covenants, couldn’t move.


Even the real estate industry, which had long predicated “value” on how 
white a neighborhood was, realized that white suburban home buyers were 
becoming a saturated market. Much of the existing housing stock in the 
cities was considered cheap or even worthless; the enterprising investor 
could buy it and flip it for enormous profit, as long as he could find a 
buyer.


Taylor’s book meticulously documents what happened next, as the federal 
government partnered with a real estate industry enthusiastic about 
exploiting a new market but refusing to bear most of the risk. She 
details bungling mismanagement, gross corruption, distorted incentives, 
civil rights regulations that went unheeded and unenforced — what Taylor 
calls a system of “predatory inclusion” that was distinct yet not 
entirely free from the racist system of exclusion that preceded it.


A number of the home buyers who later brought these abuses to light were 
poor black women, whose experiences resembled something out of a horror 
movie — pressed by aggressive lenders into buying a house that, 
unbeknown to them, had been previously condemned and slated for 
demolition, disguised with a paint 

[Marxism] Martin Scorsese Avenges the Auteur | The New Yorker

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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What Scorsese is decrying is not the use of fantasy characters in 
movies. (A few days ago, he said that he even considered making “Joker,” 
though I wonder whether he was joking.) There’s a word in the first 
sentence of the piece that, clearly but subtly, propels the through line 
of his argument. He doesn’t complain about “superhero” movies; he says 
that, in Empire, he was speaking of “Marvel movies.” He repeats “Marvel” 
in the second paragraph, and then, in the third paragraph, specifies 
what he’s talking about: “franchise films.” Scorsese isn’t inveighing 
against fantasy but against a system of production that submerges 
directors’ authority in a network of dictates and decisions issued from 
the top down—a network in which the director is more of a functionary 
than a creator.


https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/martin-scorsese-avenges-the-auteur
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[Marxism] Even a Clown Is Fascinated by Ideas: The Forty-Fifth Newsletter (2019).

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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In 2017, Issa Shivji delivered the Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture at the 
University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Issa, who 
taught at the University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) for decades, 
reflected on the idea of revolutionary intellectuals. He remembered a 
lecture given by Ali Mazrui fifty years previously, where Mazrui defined 
an intellectual as someone who is fascinated by ideas. ‘Even a clown is 
fascinated by ideas’, yelled out one of the students.


https://mailchi.mp/thetricontinental.org/even-a-clown-is-fascinated-by-ideas-the-forty-fifth-newsletter-2019?e=77bd6c9887
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[Marxism] The left in Chile has abandoned struggle

[Louis Proyect via Marxism]

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https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/49184/The+left+in+Chile+has+abandoned+struggle
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[Marxism] Syrian Kurds OK US-led oil mission

[RKOB via Marxism]

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Another confirmation of the ongoing service of the PYD/YPG for US 
imperialism (while at the same time negotiating with Assad and Russian 
imperialism).


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2019/11/syria-kurds-sdf-pentagon-oil-mission-kobane.html


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[Marxism] Which Side Are You On?: The Challenge of the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution - COSMONAUT

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https://cosmonaut.blog/2019/11/07/which-side-are-you-on-the-challenge-of-the-1974-ethiopian-revolution/
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